Discovering Iceland: Farm Houses & Empty Roads

Jason Lee, his wife Natalie Lee, and their daughter continued their trip through Iceland, visiting Mývatn, Fardagafoss, Seyðisfjörður, and Höfn.

Their continued journey brought them upon more swimming pools, which the Lee’s have described as being closer to mini water-parks. The pools are a huge part of Iceland’s culture, Natalie says, with kid friendly sections and pools of different temperatures. In fact their word for Saturday even reflects their importance.

One of the small towns they visited, Seyðisfjörður, was one of their prettiest stops, Jason says. There he was able to capture a photo (pictured above) of one of the only sunrises he and his family saw in Iceland.

“Most of the sunrises were pretty cloudy,” Jason explains. Natalie adds that the sun rose around 4 or 5 AM, so many times they weren’t awake to witness the sun rise.

The picturesque town was full of colorful farm houses as well as a pretty pastel church. The Lee’s say this style of building was seen throughout the country.

“The architecture of Seyðisfjörður was pretty consistent with the rest of Iceland,” Jason says. “Lots of bright red houses with white roofs.”

Though in the small town the farm houses were clustered together, the Lee’s say most of Iceland’s houses were far apart from one another. Each farm house seemed to be nestled into its own set of hills, they describe.

“A lot of the farms had their own personal waterfall,” Natalie says. “There was so much water in Iceland in general: rain, creeks, and of course waterfalls.”

Due to the sparsely populated regions, the Lee’s found that the culture in Iceland was one of independence with their many isolated farming communities and you could go for a while on the road without seeing others.

“There were a lot of people at the main attractions, but driving around it was pretty wide open,” Jason says.

Travelling around in a camper van allowed the Lee’s to go at their own pace around the country, especially due to its large number of camping sites. Natalie says she was glad they traveled this way as they didn’t have to worry about getting to a certain town by a certain day for hotel reservations.

“I don’t know how you could do it if you didn’t camp – if you truly wanted to explore the country,” Natalie says.

They camped one night at a farm house with a field of horses within walking distance. When walking over they just had to be mindful of not stepping in any sheep droppings, Jason says.

“There were lots and lots of sheep in Iceland because the sheep have no predators there,” Jason says. “Sometimes the sheep were just out without fencing.”

This part of their trip also led them to Hverir (steam vents), (“Smelled like rotten eggs,” Jason says) and Dettifoss, a waterfall in Iceland that has the most volume of any waterfall in Europe. It’s described as the most powerful or mightiest waterfall on the continent.